Using Denial to Cope with Grief and Depression - Winifred Gallagher

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/04/30/Mastering_Attention_to_Transform_Experience

Winifred Gallagher, an acclaimed behavioral science writer, discusses a study that shows people recover from tragedy with more ease if they do not dwell on their grief. Drawing from this, she suggests it may be best to refrain from "obsessing" over distress and trauma.

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Can we train our focus? What's different about the way creative people pay attention?

Winifred Gallagher, an acclaimed behavioral science writer, makes the radical argument that the quality of your life largely depends on what you choose to pay attention to and how you choose to do it. - Los Angeles Public Library

Winifred Gallagher's books include House Thinking, Just the Way You Are (a New York Times Notable Book), Working on God, and The Power of Place. She has written for numerous publications, such as Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• psychology
• psychologists
• coping
• death
• bereavement
• loss
• tragedy
• crisis
• mood
• grieving
• tragic
• sadness
• emotional
• experiences
• fora.tv
• foratv
• fora
• tv

[garvess]

I would rather be an honest 60 year old in a coffin than a deluded 95 year old in a rocking chair.

[franksvenatra]

Common sense. But coming to terms with a problem doesn't mean that you let it consume or define you as she seems to imply

[rawmouseius]

denail is the best

[fibrotree]

awesome!!!

[fibrotree]

Most people I know in denial hurt other people. Not a good idea

[xTRUExHATEx]

You missed the entire point. The suggestion to not obsess on your loss is not so that you don't make others uncomfortable. The research suggests that suppressing your grief (i.e. choosing to focus your attention elsewhere) will decrease YOUR suffering.

[thegrievingmother]

I lost my 20 year old six months ago, and it astounds me what people will tell you, you should be doing or thinking. I have become VERY good at not displaying my grief, because it makes YOU uncomfortable. It is a relief when I find I can talk to someone that has experienced a loss because they understand the place your in, because they are in it too.

[NaytronNeanderer]

Her mom sounds like my grandmother. Old, happy, and... Catholic; which just isn't an option for many of us.

[MoistKumquat]

Good point. Garvess must be a fool who thinks he is wise.

[CONSIDERyou]

You call someone other than yourself your "autobiographer," then you call him an idiot. Wow.

[befranklintoo]

freud invented the cloning of humans & control thought.

it is new world order pandemic of the mind.

most believers are born empty of thoughts and find this theory

of human behavior to be correct. odd though the mental Hospitals of America destroy with the use of drugs. it is a weapon of the most clever kind.

[garvess]

You must be my autobiographer. Tell me a bit more about myself. Idiot.